446 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



Notwithstanding the greater pollution of our local rivers and 

 Breydon by sewage and other noxious matter, it is a fact that 

 Smelts still ascend to the fresher waters, and on the "flats" 

 afford local smelters with occasional good catches. I was looking 

 on at three of them "drawing" on Nov. 8th. Amongst their 

 catches they were — and so was I — astonished at seeing a goodly- 

 sized Scad (Trachurus trachurus) kicking about. This I secured 

 for a friend who is interested in plaster-casting local fishes. It 

 is the first taken on Breydon of which I have any record. The 

 same men took several Sprats, also most unusual there, although 

 plentiful in November off the Suffolk coast. 



A Twaite Shad, 14^ in. in length, was taken on Nov. 18th in 

 the nets of a Scotchman ; how this Chub-headed fellow managed 

 to gill itself in so small a mesh, and remain there, is one of 

 those problems that wait solution. 



The Herring fishery this season has produced little of interest 

 from a naturalist's standpoint; the Herrings have been of 

 excellent quality, and a fairly good catch has been made. But 

 those rapacious fishes, e.g. Sharks, Dogfishes, and larger enemies 

 in the shape of Porpoises and Dolphins, have been conspicuously 

 absent, only two or three Porpoises having been landed. The 

 plague of Dogfishes which has proved so disastrous on our 

 southern coasts this autumn would seem not to have affected 

 in the least the interests of our local fishermen. 



